


Physics Class

by FictionalWorldsAreExquisite



Series: About Peter [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Gen, Peter Parker is a Mess, Peter is a Little Shit, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, has not quite nailed the telling off part though i will say that much, i am so glad that's a tag. because that's this whole story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:34:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21554719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FictionalWorldsAreExquisite/pseuds/FictionalWorldsAreExquisite
Summary: Peter's delighted to discover how much he can get away with doing during physics class (turns out, when you're normally a good student, you can get away with a lot), Tony is less delighted when he gets called down to the school when Peter tests his boundaries a little too much.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: About Peter [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1553290
Comments: 33
Kudos: 377





	Physics Class

**Author's Note:**

> lil_bit03 said 'Any chance you can give us one with all the things Peter does at school to test his boundaries with the teachers?' on Peter's Pockets and I was like hmm could I write a fic on that? And then I immediately did and I had this within an hour...which I edited today...so apparently I can write a fic on that. Except it's not EXACTLY what you asked for. But it kind of is? Also any mistakes are mine and it's a hot day so I have no doubt I missed some obvious ones, I am literally melting, why'd you send us this hot weather australia?? i hate it.
> 
> But it was for sure written quickly so don't come out of the last fic (which a lot of people seemed to like, thank you for all the comments!) expecting this to live up to it, it's just an average fic. Oh and you don't HAVE to read the one before this if you're just clicking straight on this one, it kind of references it and takes a couple of things from it but honestly it's mostly unrelated (although the first fic is superior). I just took my ideas from it and had some fun filling my time writing this. Enjoy anyway!
> 
> also i have no idea what school is like in america, i didn't even have detention at my high school so you know. i made any school stuff up as i went.

Peter liked to talk to Tony about his day whenever he came over, or all the previous days depending on when he last saw him. So Tony would like to think that he knew the kid pretty well by now.

In fact, he was actually Peter’s emergency contact at his school. It was all kept very secret but it was important for Peter to have a second contact when May wasn’t in a position to collect him and so Tony had agreed to be that contact.

He’d never actually received a phone call from the school before because it would take not one, but two bones sticking out of Peter’s skin for Peter to give in and ask to be picked up. And on those rare occasions, May made it down to pick him up so it never fell to him.

Which was why he was surprised when he got a call from the school today, and about damage to school property caused by Peter, no less. But when he heard ‘physics class’ all surprise disappeared. He said he’d be there in thirty minutes tops and hung up. Tony was simultaneously looking and not looking forward to this.

Physics class was...something Peter talked about a lot.

Peter was top of his class in physics, a model student really, he hadn’t been late once (mostly because he never had the class first thing in the morning), he never handed in an assignment late (because he actually liked the work), he got amazing marks on all assignments and Peter had let him know that the teacher told him more than a few were written at university level so the teacher was impressed with him, to say the least. Plus, as was the kid’s nature, he was always polite and kind to the teacher, so yeah, the teacher liked him and was a little...lenient, you could say.

Clearly not this time though.

As Tony headed to his car, he wondered if he should’ve maybe stepped in the first time Peter said something, been a responsible adult and pulled the disappointed card. But really, he didn’t regret it that much.

Peter got bored easily and if all his classes in a day hadn’t been particularly stimulating, well, you really just had a recipe for disaster. 

It started with Peter waltzing into the lab one day and telling Tony all about how he got away with reading on his phone in physics like it was a mastermind plan. It was...a little excessive.

_“So I went to the library at lunch and got some physics books out. I didn’t really look at what they were specifically, I just made sure they were physics and big, you know? Then I slid a bookmark into one of them at a random place and put them down on my desk when I walked into physics so I had a little tower in the middle of my desk. Then I grabbed my book out and my pen which you could just see over the book tower and acted like I was taking notes by moving my pen occasionally but really I was just reading on my phone. The teacher didn’t even suspect a thing.”_

It was at this point that Tony probably should’ve given a, ‘don’t use your phone in class’ speech but in his defence, he did actually say that...in a sentence or so...and dropped it when Peter said he knew he shouldn’t...which was basically the same as a speech anyway.

Peter got more curious after that, with a sort of ‘how much could he actually get away with before his teacher called him out’ attitude.

Tony got in his car and pulled out onto the road. It moved onto bubbles after that.

_“So I brought a small tube of bubble mixture with me to class and started blowing bubbles every time the teacher turned his back. It didn’t take long for Flash to turn around and see me and tell the teacher but I just acted confused and quickly dropped the tube into my open bag at least a second before the teacher turned. My teacher brushed it off looking confused because there was clearly no bubbles. Anyway, I kept that up for the entire lesson and Flash stopped trying to say anything because the teacher never believed him.”_

At least he was paying attention to the teacher that time? Or, at least the teacher’s position. Maybe not so much what he was teaching. Tony didn’t actually say anything discouraging to Peter that time which...okay, no. Peter hadn’t been seen so he was being careful and he knew the content so Tony had nothing to say.

From there, he moved onto directly testing the teacher but Peter never implied the teacher was actually mad so again, he never said anything to stop him.

_“I’ve started handing my assignments in as origami. At first, I could only do an origami frog, but I’ve been teaching myself. My teacher looked tired but didn’t really react the first time, but I swear he smiled when I showed him how to make it jump, talking all innocently. Tuesday was just a paper plane, Wednesday was a bird, Thursday was a car and today I gave him a cat. I think he’s reconsidering the nightly homework assignments but he still hasn’t told me not to even though he looks very done with me. I think it’s because I’ve been putting even more work in to make up for it.”_

It was the type of thing that made the teacher’s life slightly harder, which Peter wasn’t usually interested in, but he was undeniably putting in extra work and hey, maybe the teacher liked the origami. That was Tony’s reasoning anyway on why he didn’t do anything.

Next up involved Peter bouncing his knee so violently, the teacher felt it.

_“So I sat in front of my physics teacher today. Like, the desk in front of his desk, anyway. And whenever he sat down, I made sure to bounce my leg violently hard. I could see the items on his desk moving slightly and he clearly felt it by the way he looked around the class when I started. He did actually call out my name though and I apologised and claimed I didn’t even realise I was doing it. But I did. And I started it back up about ten minutes later and this time he left me be. I mean, I normally do it accidentally anyway but I’m not usually sitting in front of him and I’m not usually focusing on it.”_

Which wasn’t nice, exactly, but Peter didn’t exactly love this teacher and hey, it wasn’t the worst thing he could be doing to express that. From what Peter had told him, the teacher was a bit...rude if you weren’t on his good side. Which may have been putting it mildly.

It kept on from there, little things mostly, whether the teacher experienced it directly or Peter was just getting away with doing something in the class. Things like Peter pulling out some cleaner and a dishcloth to clean his desk quietly in the middle of class, trimming his hair into the bin, writing his assignments in glitter pen, carving a ball out of wood during class, leaving out the window (on the first floor), putting new shoelaces in his shoes instead of taking notes, playing solitaire (not on his phone, with physical cards), bringing a kitten in (that one wasn’t planned. Kid just couldn’t resist when he saw it), shaving his leg with scissors to see what would happen, volunteering to turn the projector on by piling a chair on a desk because he was too short and wobbling the whole time (weirdly effective in stressing the teacher out, apparently) and so on.

It was never super bad (okay, except for the time when he trapped the teacher in the room for like ten minutes because he’d been rude to Ned. That was kind of bad), and Peter’s grades hadn’t slipped one bit so Tony just committed to not saying anything unless like, something illegal came up.

Except now he was being called to come meet Peter in the principal’s office. So what the hell had happened? The last thing Peter had mentioned doing in physics was last Friday.

_“I retyped out one of my shorter assignment handouts and printed it on large A3 paper instead and wrote the answers super big then handed that in. I told him that I lost the original copy and got the questions off Ned and typed it up myself and acted like I didn’t know what he was getting at when he started saying ‘but...but…’ and gesturing towards the paper. I did the work anyway. It’s fine. He has bad eyesight, I’m just being helpful.”_

Which honestly was pretty tame. So what the hell had happened between then and now? He was beginning to think he should’ve actually said something.

\----

Tony pulled into the school and checked himself in (thank God the receptionist just looked him up and down and shrugged before pointing him to the principal's office instead of making a big deal out of it).

He hadn’t really considered what he was walking into here as he knocked on the principal’s door. Damage to school property could mean a lot of things. But...if it was so important that an emergency contact was required, well. This could be bad.

Presumably the principal opened the door and lit up in recognition before putting his hand out. “Hello, Mr. Stark. I’m Principal Morita.” Ah. So Tony guessed right.

Tony grabbed his hand and shook it, “well, you clearly know who I am, but please, I prefer Tony. What did Peter get up to now?”

Morita opened the door further and ushered him in. Tony noted that Peter was sitting in front of the principal’s desk, clearly refusing to look at him.

“So, the receptionist informed you that he damaged school property?”

“Yeah, she said something about physics class.” Although Tony probably would’ve guessed that anyway.

“Well, it’s less damaged and more dismantled. And there’s a surprising amount of it,” Morita revealed.

Tony looked over at Peter as he took a seat next to him. Peter had apparently found something very interesting on the wall to stare at.

“Peter. Would you like to tell Tony what you did?” 

Peter sighed, sounding like he’d rather do literally anything else, and turned to look somewhere around Tony’s shoulder. “Dismantled a few chairs and desks,” he said in a flat voice.

Tony frowned. “Why?” That sure was an escalation from Peter’s usual antics.

“Because...I was bored? You taught me what we were learning in class today, last week, and I wasn’t really interested in hearing it repeated so soon. Sorry, Mr. Morita, not to be rude.”

“Yeah but you’ve been bored before, you haven’t done this, kid.” Time to pull out the disappointed and disapproving voice even though he was a little amused.

“I just wondered how many I could get through.” Seriously?

“How many did you manage to dismantle before being sent here?” Tony was obviously asking out of concern for the property, not out of curiosity or anything, no way.

Peter shrugged and looked at the Principal.

Morita stepped in, “his teacher reported four chairs and three desks being dismantled.”

Tony was a little shocked, “but you weren’t even there for the full period!”

Peter shrugged again, “probably for the best.” Well now, that was a good point.

Tony turned to the Principal again, “not to sound rude or anything but how did his physics teacher not notice chairs and desks disappearing until he’d gotten through that many?”

Peter answered for him, “he was actually busy grading tests while we had a video to watch. So he was only looking up every so often and it was dark. Plus, they only fell apart when you touched them. I balanced them perfectly without screws and stuff.”

Tony sighed. “Okay, how did you even do this?” The kid really was a menace when given the opportunity.

Peter brightened, “oh! I brought a small set of screwdrivers to school!”

Morita cleared his throat, “which I ended up confiscating.”

Peter deflated again and looked away.

“Alright then. What’s the punishment we’re working with here?” If there was a suspension, May would be pissed. He would be...disappointed? Yeah. That seemed like a reasonable reaction.

“Well, since Peter offered to put them back together, he’ll be doing that, supervised though. And he’ll have a month of detention on top of that since this isn’t the first time he’s ended up in this office. But I’d be willing to reduce it by a week or so if the tables and chairs end up fine and safe to use.” Well, that didn’t seem too bad. At least it wasn’t a suspension. The kid would survive that and he knew Peter could easily reassemble the chairs. But if it was after school detention then he’d have to get Happy to pick Peter up later than usual.

“Alright. That seems reasonable. Right, kid?”

Peter nodded and mumbled his agreement. Tony rolled his eyes, the kid got himself into this so he’d just have to deal.

Morita nodded, “well, I’ve given Peter some papers for his guardian to sign to agree to so he just needs to get those returned. I’d appreciate you making sure they reach May. Other than that, he’s free to leave with you since school is nearly finished for the day, detention will start next week.”

Tony nodded, “I’ll personally deliver them to May if necessary. C’mon then, Pete. We’ll...talk about this.” Yeah, that’s what he was supposed to do, disappointed talk.

“Oh and Peter?” Morita called out.

Peter turned, “yes?”

“I expect you not to engage in this behaviour again, alright?”

Peter nodded, “won’t happen again, I swear.”

Morita nodded back, seemingly satisfied. “Then off you go.”

Tony didn’t say anything to Peter as he signed him out and walked with him back to the car. Peter had started fidgeting. When Tony climbed into his side of the car and turned to face Peter in the passenger seat, he fully intended to give him a lecture but then the image of Peter crawling around under desks and seats, creating chaos in the back of the class while no one else had any idea of what was happening, came into his mind and he lost it in laughter.

Peter looked confused like this was the last thing he was expecting.

Once Tony got ahold of himself he cleared his throat, “kid. You’re definitely in trouble. Don’t think you aren’t. But it’s so stupid, you really do just end up doing the weirdest things and it’s dumb enough to make me laugh. You’re not off the hook though.”

Peter sighed, “nothing you can say will be worse than what May will say.”

Tony considered this, “yeah. You’re right. Don’t do it again, don’t damage any school property again, maybe stop messing around in physics and give your teacher a break, alright?”

Peter nodded, “got it. Start behaving, understood.”

“I’d say I’m disappointed in you but that would be a lie, I’m a little impressed you got through those many desks and chairs. But if you tell May that, I’ll ban you from lab days for the time your detention runs.”

Peter zipped his mouth, “I heard nothing.” He paused. “But I was pretty efficient, right?”

Tony shook his head and started the car, “nope. Not going there.”

**Author's Note:**

> The vast majority of things mentioned in this fic are things I witnessed at high school (and a couple I, admittedly, did) so they are way more realistic than the last fic which was straight up bizarre. I can assure you, however, that no one dismantled a desk or chair, although I came very close because some screws were loose and I got curious to see if I could pull it apart. It's kind of weird because the things I DIDN'T witness people doing are some of the most normal things mentioned here like changing shoelaces or carving a ball (ok I guess that involves a knife that may be dangerous). High school was a weird time. And it is very true that if you're a good student, you can get away with pretty much anything. Can confirm. I didn't do work for a whole year in one class and my teacher was like no no, it's okay, i'm sorry- it was weird.
> 
> Me: [looking out the window waiting for my friend to arrive at maths]  
> My friend: [suddenly pulling herself in through the window with her twin sister boosting her from below]  
> Me: oh hey, need help?  
> The teacher: [sighing]
> 
> A guy in science: [shaving his leg with scissors onto the desk]  
> The teacher: I will hit you if you don't stop, what the hell are you doing??
> 
> [half my class teaming up to lock the substitute in the science room because he was a dick and no one liked him]  
> the teacher: hey! let me out!  
> my class: [suddenly deaf]
> 
> rELAX the boys let him out after like 2 minutes they just wedged the door shut momentarily. no harm occurred. 
> 
> My friend: [escaping through a window with her twin sister mid-lesson because the teacher had her back turned]  
> The teacher: [turning around and seeing them just as they got out, suddenly running out the door intending to catch them]
> 
> she didn't by the way. they were raised and lived on a farm. very fit. good runners. they did get in trouble still though.


End file.
